What you need to know about the Rona affair

Hearings are being heldat the National Assembly to unravel the controversy surrounding the sale of the Quebec hardware company Rona to itsAmerican competitor, Lowe's.

The fallout from the deal ultimately forcedJacques Daoust to step downasQuebec's transport minister and give up his seat inthe National Assembly.

Here's a breakdown of what you need to know about the sale and the political fallout.

Why the sale matters

Last February, theU.S. home hardwarechain Lowe's announced it wasbuying Rona in a friendly takeover valued at $3.2 billion Cdn.

The sale was slammed by Quebec opposition parties. Theyargued the Liberal government shouldn't have let one ofQuebec's flagshipcompaniesbe sold to an American competitor.

Founded in 1939, the Boucherville,Que.-based company has long been celebrated as a symbol of Quebec entrepreneurialism.

In 2012, Jean Charest's Liberalgovernment opposed Lowe's first bid to take overRona, saying it"wasn't in Quebec or Canada's interest."

Following the failedtakeover bid,Investissement Qubec(IQ),the provincial development agency that falls under the authority of the economy minister, acquired 10 per cent of Rona to protect it from another attempted buyout.

However, it was revealed recently thatIQsold its holdings inRona to Lowe'sin 2014, stripping the government of an ownership stake in the companyand paving the way for the deal finalized two years later.

Jacques Daoust'sundoing

Daoust, transportminister until his sudden resignation on Aug. 19,repeatedly denied thathewas consulted before Rona was purchased by Lowe'swhile he was serving as minister of the economy.

But an auditor's report and a series of emails have cast doubt on that claim.

Theminutes of an IQmeeting show Daoustwaspresent whenthe board received ministerial permission tosell the stocks in December 2014.

Last week,emails from earlier in 2014 emerged that showed IQ executives asking Daoust's chief of staff whether the minister was OK with it selling its Rona shares to Lowe's.

The chief of staff, Pierre Ouellet, replied"OK" after saying he would check with his boss.

What we can expect from the hearing

In a letter sent earlier this weekto the head of the parliamentary hearing, Ouellet said he will "set the record straight" about the controversy during his appearance.

During his testimony, Ouellet said Daoust was, in fact, consulted before the sale, and offered a chronology of events leading up to the sale.

Other former employees from IQ, includingMario Albert, Jean-Claude Scraire, Yves Lafrance and Louis Roquet, were also expected to testify, along with Auditor GeneralGuylaine Leclerc.

Daoustwill not appear before the committee